pynchon-l-digest V2 #1843

[Doug Millison]

I wonder if Pynchon really feels as close to Taylor's view as "jbor" 
would have it.  It seems to me that in GR Pynchon provides the sort 
of causal explanation  that Paul Kennedy faults Taylor for not 
providing (in the Atlantic Monthly article I pointed out and which 
"jbor" is now crowing about); most obviously, GR shows a War caused 
by the needs of multinational corporations to find new markets, and 
by the needs of a certain kind of macho mentality bent on conquest 
and destruction as they find expression in war and the rape of the 
earth -- ordinary individuals seem nearly powerless in the face of 
these forces that bring into being, shape, and feed the War.  Pynchon 
would also seem to be making fun of the sort of detailed-oriented 
historian who would lose sight of the big picture due to a too-narrow 
focus on details and contingencies.

"jbor":
>By the way, the (new) argument Doug has come up with, the one which says
>that because A.J.P. Taylor's interpretations are used by Holocaust-deniers
>they must be wrong, is totally illogical. He's squirmed away from his
>original insinuation, i.e. that A.J.P. Taylor, and anyone who dares to cite
A.J.P. Taylor, are Holocaust-deniers.

Hogwash. I've said nothing of the sort.
What I've said, consistently, in the face of distortions by Mackin 
and "jbor" is

Doug:
>I've quoted DeLong comparing  Holocaust denier David Irving's
>approach to history to the historical approach of A.J.P. Taylor, an
>historian whose work has been used by neo-Nazis to justify their own
>historical revisionism.  I've also quoted the Department of History
>at the University of San Diego making clear that Taylor is not
>himself considered a Holocaust revisionist.
>
>If you want to turn that upside down and claim I've said the opposite
>of course you can but I don't know why you'd want to except to start
>an argument.
>
>It remains interesting to me to watch the debate about the work of
>the historian that arises out of the work of Holocaust deniers, and
>to view it in the context of the way Pynchon plays with history in
his novels.


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